Jordan & O’Grady – Nov. 10

Michelle Jordan and Jenny O’Grady traded their work. Michelle gave Jenny this photo she took:

In response, Jenny wrote this poem:

Wallflower (For Eva Hesse)

I’m swinging from a net on the wall,
limbs swollen, lips lassoed,
cantilevered, waiting
in checkerboard quarters,
for something.

The wall catches and keeps me,
bra clasp stretched by beckoning
finger, or a mole, a molecule,
a hook and eye,
keeps me here.

It’s a wonder I can breathe,
cleft breasts, one
atop the other, twine
separating my lungs,
in this lovely mandolin.

If I inhale,
the wires will cut me to cubes.
If I exhale,
I may disappear.

If anything, you
might acknowledge this:
My dress is beautiful.

* * * *

Jenny gave Michelle this sonnet:

Britney Spears

At one time, I masked my sadness with hate
Of the fortunate fools whose “insides worked”
Almost too well, who flashed, fucked and mated
Themselves into Mothers. As if some crunk-
Encrusted vessel might better carry
The purest of recipes. I would cry,
“Look at her, look at her! She can barely
Stand without falling. That baby just might
Crawl back in, the door swings so well and wide.”
But spite no better nurtures life than longing,
And bitterness can’t soothe a woman’s pride,
When something deep inside is simply…wrong.
I will not judge you, so long as I live,
Or begrudge a gift I can’t be given.

In response, Michelle painted this, entitled “Ghost Kittens”: